Media Release: Go Ape, the forest adventure, gets personal

SUSSEX-based owners, Tristram and Rebecca Mayhew, have built one of the fastest-growing companies in the country.

Now, with over 30 UK sites and 15 US sites, and a growing portfolio of adventures under the Go Ape brand, they needed a robust website that would support their drive for delivering a superior visitor experience from the very first interaction.

Digital agency, Precedent, were appointed back in 2015 to help them realise their ambitious plans.

“Using persuasive design, clever personalisation and geolocation, all built using the Sitecore CMS, the new website now offers a solid, faster and more importantly a scalable technical platform.

“With 70 per cent of bookings made online, the process has been radically simplified to reduce drop-off rates and provide customers with all the information they need, which in turn reduces pressure on Go Ape’s call centre.”

The homepage now supports video and currently features their visually striking TV advert, which creates a fully immersive experience and is the first step in building excitement for users before, during and after their adventure.

The responsive website now includes detailed course maps for visitors ahead of and during their visit.

Location pages now include examples of the top crossings at each location for Tree Top Adventure and Tree Top Junior, including a visual and online summary of each adventure. All of which now enables Go Ape to showcase the unique features of each location.

This is just the beginning of Go Ape’s transformation. With powerful analytics at their fingertips and the benefit of additional add-ons such as Web Forms for Marketers and Email Experience Manager, all tied into their CRM, the marketing team now have a comprehensive single solution that will support future personalisation opportunities.

“Our teams at site are friendly and learn our customers’ names, using them from welcome to celebration, talking them expertly through our safety instructions.

“When our customers complete one of our adventures our instructors hand write certificates and thank every customer personally. We started the design process with one simple objective; we wanted to replicate the same excellent customer experience that our teams deliver at site, digitally.

“Obviously, our new website is fast, built mobile first, fully responsive – it’s designed to be easier to use with all of the right information in all of the right places.

“Over that, what we really wanted to achieve was a personalised experience that felt the same as the delivery of one of our instructors.

“Using technology, we were able to go past simply calling our customers by their name. We wanted to identify where a customer lives and then show them to their nearest or most relevant adventure.

“We wanted to be able to recognise a customer has visited before, then recall and prioritise information based on their previous visit. We wanted our marketing comms to be personalised too. As well as some other really cool tricks.

“Our eventual aim is to deliver an entirely bespoke website for each of our customers based on behaviour, location, where they had previously visited or what they had previously bought. We have gone some way to achieving this and are looking forward to the future.”

ENDS

MEDIA RELEASE issued by The BIG Partnership. You too can share your stories (aka press or media releases), on allmediascotland.com. Email here for more information.